A very nice surprise.
To be completely transparent, I fully expected I would hate this fork and open and return it the same day. I had never really heard of Cangshan, it's not German as all my knives are, and let's face it, Chinese companies don't exactly have a great manufacturing reputation (despite the fact that basically everything is made in China, no matter how many people seem shocked by it), let alone as a place to get great cutlery. I am legitimately surprised by how good this looks and feels.I am a home cook/ hobbyist, so my opinion isn't expert. I'm just a guy who has learned to like and use expensive German forged knives. I really wanted a carving fork, but all the big German names charge so much for what is basically a single use kitchen gadget, and really do you need the same things out of a carving fork that you need out of a carving knife? I didn't think so. After reading so many positive reviews of Cangshan, I decided it was a fairly low-risk proposition. Assuming it doesn't do anything weird in the next few years, I'd say I made the right call.It looks beautiful. It is really well-forged and polished. The handles are perfectly molded and fit. The rivets are flush with the handle. I'm not a metallurgist or even a part-time expert in non-music related metal, and I had never heard of Swedish Sandvick steel before I heard of Cangshan so for all I knew it was just a throwaway gimmick, but if it is, it's a really well pulled off gimmick. Obviously I can't do any kind of comparison of knife edges, sharpness, edge retention, etc. But my gut tells me that the knives are probably pretty good too, just based on the merits of this fork.Obviously you don't have the name cachet of a Wusthof or a Zwilling with this brand. The most glamorous I could find is that Costco occasionally sells a knife block. Maybe someday people will walk into your kitchen and say "you have Canshan cutlery! No way!" Who knows, but you'll have to decide for yourself if that's important to you. That said, if you're super skeptical of all the positive reviews, like I was, I'd say you probably don't need to be.This feels like the real deal. I may even have to pick up a knife or two. I've been wanting to pick up a Nakiri blade for a while now.